Six Preschool Activities for a Rainy Day

“It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man is…” Well, you get the idea. You’re stuck inside with your preschoolers and there’s nothing to do. If you are all in a small room or home, that makes the situation even worse.  But, take heart! Here are six ideas that just might keep those preschoolers occupied and turn this rainy day into a fun one!

1. Get them dancing.

Whether you’ve got just one preschooler or a whole bunch this one is fun. You can take some scarves, ribbons, or just pieces of cloth to make a fun dance. If you have a group they can weave in and out and around each other – kids as well as any adults present – and enjoy dancing around the room.

Choose music you know your kids love. Play different songs, moving from slow to fast, encouraging everyone to dance differently according to the tempo. Dancing like this is a fun exercise AND it’s educational!

2. Make musical instruments.

You can make instruments from common household objects. Here are just a few ideas:

Make drums from round containers with plastic lids. Coffee cans, oatmeal and cocoa containers can be used. To make it more fun, decorate them to look more like drums.

Put some dried beans inside a cardboard tube like the ones inside a roll of paper towels. Seal the ends with wax paper and secure the ends with rubber bands. You’ve created a great rhythm instrument that can be shaken while dancing. Put dried beans into empty bottles and cap them.

Make guitars by stretching rubber bands around various hollow containers and boxes. You can use tissue boxes or food containers.

Fill a few drinking glasses with varying amounts of water. These will make different musical notes when they’re tapped.

3. Go bowling.

Set up some plastic bottles as pins at the one side of the room or end of a hallway. Then roll a soft ball toward them to knock them over.

4. Build a house.

No elaborate construction needed here! Make a playhouse by just throwing a blanket over a table or some chairs. You can furnish your house with children’s furniture and occupy it in no time! Just use a flashlight for interior lighting.

5. Explore a junk drawer.

Your preschoolers will love to have permission to explore that “junk drawer” of yours. See if your they can identify all the objects and sort them by shapes and colors.

6. Go fishing.

Take some card stock or construction paper and cut out fish shapes. Then, fasten a paper clip onto the mouth of each fish. Tie a kitchen magnet onto the end of a string and attach the other end of the string to a stick or rod. The object of the game is to see how many fish each one can catch with the magnet.

It takes only a little preparation and a few ideas to keep your preschoolers – and yourself – occupied on a rainy day. And don’t be surprised if you have more fun than they do!

Summertime can be another challenge if you have preschoolers. If you need some help, take a look at 101 Kid Summer Activities.

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